Track and Trace systems for tracking and tracing of manufactured items is well known in the industry. Counterfeiting affects both the manufacturer and the public. E.g. in the field of pharmaceuticals, fake medicines may have no effect, or they can have dangerous side effects.
The systems used for preventing counterfeiting are implemented in a number of different ways.
One group of technology in the field is concerned with how to mark items and how to read back the information from the items to avoid copying of products. To avoid copying, the items can be marked with invisible markers, encrypted codes, RFID tags etc. It should be difficult for a counterfeiter to discover and decipher the information marked on the item, since this would enable the counterfeiter to copy the items and the marking in a way that would lead a consumer to believe they buy the original product.
Another group of technology is more concerned with how to authenticate, follow, or trace an item from the manufacture to the end customer. By marking every single product with a unique code or digital identifier, any product can be checked instantaneously on an individual basis by anyone at any location.
By controlling the supply chain, and especially what happens to the items when being received and shipped in the distribution points, the possibility of successful counterfeiting or other fraudulent activities is reduced. This is commonly referred to as secure track and trace.
A secure track and trace system is surveying and managing all goods having been marked and registered with a unique identifier, and at the same time controlling all parties allowed to handle the products, all the way from the manufacture to the end consumer.
Track and trace systems according to background art works in the way that product items and associated transportation units are marked with a unique identifier. This identifier is then utilized to continuously authenticate the product in the supply chain. If the authentication process has a positive outcome, i.e. the product and code has been determined to be genuine, additional information related to the product and the present stage of the supply chain may be recorded and stored for later retrieval and analysis. The pivotal information that is recorded during the addition of a new tracking record is the identity of the product or transportation unit, the location and the time and also information about the operator. If available, the devices and method by which the product was authenticated, as well as other circumstantial and pertinent information may also be recorded in the tracking record.
This series of tracking records recorded by the track and trace system will result in a complete history of the handling of the product in the supply chain, that might be presented and audited at any time for security or other purposes.
According to prior art the unique codes may be generated and printed directly on the item during the manufacturing or packaging process. However, in many instances and for some industrial applications it is impractical to mark the products as they are manufactured or packed. For instance this is the case if generic and “white” products are manufactured at a central facility and later exported to different markets where the products must be amended to fulfill different local requirements and regulations and, as a consequence, associated with market specific information.
As an alternative marking method, the codes are generated before the products are packaged or even before they are manufactured. In fact it is not even necessary to know which products the codes are to be marked on when generating the codes since the codes can be associated with the products at a later stage when the exact association is known. This link between the code and the product may be established before, during or after manufacturing or packaging or at any later stage in the supply chain.
Pre-printed media to be used in the packaging or manufacturing process may come in a variety of formats, depending on the actual requirements of the manufacturing and packaging process.
Pre-printed media are often delivered as labels, cartons, etc. on rolls. Typically a roll of pre-printed media will be delivered for the manufacture or packaging of a specific batch, where the packaging media format and the number of packaging media on the roll is adapted to the batch. One example of such pre-printed media is pre-printed unfolded cartons delivered on a roll of paper or cardboard, for example 1000 pre-printed medicine cartons on a roll, each with a unique code. The roll may then be cut into into individual carton units and folded as part of the manufacturing or packaging process.
Another example is a container, or box of 1000 pre-printed cartons, each with a unique code that are already cut and put into the box before they reach the manufacturing or packaging process. They may also be partly folded inside the box. Here, the collection of the pre-printed media is not necessary in the same order as the generated codes in the computer system, and also are not physically attached or linked to each other as would be on a roll.
In any case, rolls, boxes and any other format where a specific number of pre-printed packaging media is delivered as a unit to a manufacturing process is in the following defined as a group of packaging media.
The manufacture of labels on rolls will in the following be used to describe prior art related to pre-printed media. However, other pre-printed media as discussed above will be equally relevant for the purpose of this invention. It is important to understand that pre-printed media is often manufactured in several steps, usually from a large paper roll, that is printed, sliced and cut in one or more operations.
The technical characteristic of preprinted media is that they are initially manufactured as a continuous strips or lanes of individual items, such as labels or unfolded cartons. It is also common to arrange the strip such that the strip across its width has several units adjacent to each other. For instance a continuous label strip can have four instances across the width of the strip. The strips are then cut in suitable lengths, such as a given length or number of individual units. In the case of more labels in the width of the strip these are separated and divided, typically by some form of cutting process. In this case the one original strip with four labels across the strip width has been transformed to four strips or lanes with one label across each strip. Each new strip would then normally be ¼ the width of the original strip.
The strips are then cut into suitable lengths and and winded to a roll or coil or a coherent bundle. These rolls and bundles are then shipped to various locations where they will used for production and packaging of products.
The result is that a roll, bundle or coil has a specific, controlled and verified number of units.
The pre-printed packaging material on these rolls are marked with individual, or unique codes that need to be managed and controlled during the production of the pre-printed packaging material and later when they are applied during the manufacturing process.
In order to make this process more efficient, the marked unique codes on the rolls are delivered and made with codes according to a coding system that are arranged in a logical sequence. For instance a roll or bundle can contain 5000 labels with numbers that logically ranges from 12001 to 17000. This means that the first label is numbered 120001 and the last label is numbered 17000. The number range means that the computer system being the source can calculate all the labels on the roll having recorded the first and last label.
The marking of the labels or packaging material with the individual codes means that during the manufacturing of the rolls, the number of unique codes should be recorded for each roll to be made. There is no margin for errors in the code recording process since all errors will propagate to the code tracking system and essentially made all the products marked with incorrect information.
Normally during manufacture of the strips and the resulting packaging there is no determination of which labels will be the first and the last. Even the lanes from a wider original strip might be winding in a random direction for all lanes when being slit into multiple lanes. Further, another common problem is that some parts of the strip may be damaged. Sometimes this is repaired by stitching the strips together. For pre-printed packaging material with unique codes, this type of stitching of broken strips is strictly forbidden.
It is as also not generally possible to know in advance in which direction the rolls are being winded relative to the original printing and strip making direction. When winding the roll, the first and last label can e.g. either be 12001 (first) and 17000 (last), or equally possible label with code 17000 (first) and 12001 (last).
After the pre-printed media have been manufactured and sent to the packaging process, it is important that the pre-printed media has the expected, or ordered characteristics that can be used for the specific packaging process and batch.
Pre-printed packaging media should normally only be applied to a specific and controlled packaging process. E.g. a roll of 2000 pre-printed unfolded milk cartons should be applied only for a pre-defined specific filling and sealing batch. As described previously, during manufacturing and distribution of the packaging media, there are several possibilities for errors that may not be discovered before it is too late. This may result in production stops, cancellation of entire product batches etc.
If the manufacture of the pre-marked media is not done correctly an unknown quantity of manufactured products will have incorrect information associated and mapped to them in the code computer system where information about the codes on the pre-printed media is stored.
One of the major problems with the present technology is that there is little or no verification of the pre-printed media before applied in the packaging process.